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Sacul Nagrem
Sacul Campbell Nagrem (/'sækʌl 'kæmbʊl 'nægrɛm/; born Februari 27, 1955) is the first and current President of Luthionia. Born in Leuven, Belgium, Nagrem is a graduate of the Catholic University of Leuven, where he studied Biochemistry and Biotechnology. He was at the forefront of the fight for Luthionian independence, together with his wife Eve Winters and lifelong friend Mark Devos. He was appointed temporary Head of State when Luthionia was founded, and was elected as President in the nation’s first elections. He has been re-elected twice since then. He is also the head of the Luthionian SP.A. Early life and career (1955-1997) Sacul Nagrem was born on Februari 27, 1955 in the University Hospital of Leuven. His mother, Isabel Campbell, was a Belgian citizen of Scottish descent born in Manchester. His father, Ian Nagrem, was a Belgian born in Genk. His parents met in 1947 in Tervuren, where they both lived, and when they first started dating his mother couldn’t speak Dutch nor his father English. They learnt quickly enough though, and soon moved in together. Isabel changed her nationality to Belgian. They married five years later on July 9, 1952, she twenty-one and he twenty years of age. They moved to England for a year, but then returned to Tervuren. Two years later Sacul came along. Ian worked for DHL as an accountant and Isabel stayed at home to look after their child. They never had any other children. They are both still alive today. Nagrem went to a Catholic school in Tervuren for his primary and secondary education. His parents weren’t at all religious, but it happened to be the best school in the neighbourhood. He did well at school, and showed a keen interest for the sciences, especially biology and chemistry. It was during his time in secondary that he befriended Mark Devos, who would remain his friend for the rest of his life and ultimately become Prime Minister of Luthionia. After graduating from school with magna cum laude, Nagrem went to study Biochemistry and Biotechnology in the Catholic University of Leuvwhich would later be renamed (now Leuven University). He made many new friends there, but also remained in contact with his friends from school. One of his new friends, Eve Winters , was very into politics, and got Nagrem interested in it as well. She was a member of ‘Jong SP.A’, the branch for students of the socialist party SP.A. Nagrem joined too, and was soon completely drawn into the world of politics. In 1975 Nagrem and Winters started dating, and were soon in a serious relationship. They were both passionate about biochemistry and politics, and worked hard to keep up both interests. In 1979 they both completed their Master of Science in Biochemistry and Biotechnology. They remained at the Catholic University of Leuven doing research, and meanwhile worked out a career in politics. They were active in local politics in Leuven. But after a while they both had to make a choice: focus on their scientific career or their political one? Nagrem decided to go down the political path, and Winters chose the scientific one. Winters remained active in local politics, but she focused on her new job in Galapagos, a Belgian biochemical company. By this time Nagrem and Winters had moved in together and were living in the centre of Leuven. It was in 1985, ten years after they started going out, that they decided to get married. On June 16, 1985, they made their vows in a civil ceremony. It was a simple wedding, only close family and friends were invited. Nagrem slowly built his way up in politics, and in 1991 managed to get a seat in the Leuven local government. His wife helped him in his political career as he did her in her scientific one. He decided that he wanted to remain in local politics, because he liked the city of Leuven and thought it would be easier to help make it a better place than to do the same for a whole nation. By 1997 he was a Leuven Council Member. It was in that year that King Albert II of Belgium passed away and was succeeded by his son Philippe. You could say that it was in that year that the spark was ignited that would ultimately lead to the creation of an entirely new nation. The lead up to Luthionian independence (1997-2000) The transition between King Albert II and King Philippe was nothing special, as Belgium was only really a monarchy in name. But it was in the same year that Bart De Bever became the leader of the N-VA, a fairly right-wing political party. He was very popular with the people, and he made use of the fact that the current government was failing, to make his party seem like a better option. In the next elections, in 1998, his party won the elections and he became Prime Minister. As there was a multi-party system in Belgium, he didn’t have that much decision power, but still enough to be the most influential player in Belgian politics. De Bever was an advocate of the secession of Flanders, but he didn’t have enough power to get that done. But on January 1, 2000, De Bever decided it was time to take matters into his own hands and stage a coup. While this was happening Nagrem and Winters were angry at the fact that such a right-wing party could do so well in the elections. They were also outraged at the strong anti-Walloon sentiment shared by many Flemish people. Fortunately Leuven’s largest party was still the SP.A. Of course, that was the final straw for the Nagrem-Winters couple. The coup was a completely peaceful one, which Nagrem didn’t actually see as a positive point, because it only made the people more accepting of what had happened. Of course, there were protests and attempts to restore the former government, but all in all a large part of the (Flemish) population just accepted what had happened, and thought it was probably all for the best. De Bever had played it well, keeping the structure of the government the same as it was, just giving himself more power by naming himself President of the Republic. King Philippe wasn’t missed, as many citizens basically saw him as a waste of money. That was the only point Nagrem had to agree on. Either way, Belgium was under the lead of a, in Nagrem’s words, ‘right-wing pompous fat bastard who’s full of his own shit’. Once De Bever became president of Belgium he decided to forget an independent Flanders for a while until things settled down. What he didn’t realize was that his actions had led to a completely different issue of independence. The independence of Luthionia, which he was everything but an advocate of. Luthionian Independence Movement (2000-2002) It is said that the concept of Luthionia was conceived in a pub in Leuven, when Nagrem, Winters and Devos met up for a drink. After drinking a few glasses they started ranting about De Bever and his fascist ideas, as all three of them were active in the world of politics. Devos jokingly suggested they should create an entirely new nation. Nagrem thought it was a brilliant idea, and wouldn’t listen to his friend’s protest that it had just been a joke. After another hour of slightly intoxicated discussion Nagrem had managed to convince both his friend and his wife that it was an achievable idea. The next morning the three of them tried to write off the idea as the ramblings of drunken friends, but they just couldn’t let go of the idea. So they started to do research into what it would take to create an independent nation. Finally they decided it was possible, and that they were willing to take a shot at it. They planned everything out into the details: which region they wanted to gain independence for, who they should first inform, when they should make the idea public, and how they would go about getting the people behind their idea. Meanwhile De Bever was making their job easier for them. He had started passing ridiculously strict laws, such as criminalising offences such as singing in public or leaning on benches. This wasn’t making him very popular with the people. So far most of them had remained quiet, as that was a typically Belgian trait, but now the unrest was growing. Nagrem spoke to the Mayor of Leuven, Louis Tobback, who at first said it was a ridiculous idea, but then changed his mind. As Tobback was a prominent member of the SP.A on a national level, his help would prove to be invaluable. Once he had Tobback’s blessing to go ahead with his plans, he and his two co-plotters spoke to several other notable politicians who had publicly denounced De Bever’s actions. One of these was Benjamin Van Cutsem, a prominent member of the CD&V (Flemish Christian Democrats) and an active player in the World Assembly. Then they tracked down and talked to several people who had already been organizing protests against De Bever since the coup. Finally they decided they were ready, and on October 12, 2000, they publicly declared the area in Flanders surrounding Leuven, Hasselt and Tienen to be an independent nation, Luthionia. The name was derived from the Latin name of Leuven, Luthon. Of course they knew that their claim wouldn’t be accepted, but they had an action plan to gain independence within two years. Initially De Bever laughed at their actions. But the Luthionian Independence Movement, as they had called it, grew rapidly in numbers. The SP.A openly declared its support of the LIM, and soon the Green party and several Walloon parties followed its lead. The LIM staged protests throughout Belgium, concentrating on Belgium’s capital, Brussels. Matters grew worse for De Bever when one of his generals, Adam Elo, offered his services and his men to the Luthionian cause, and soon after a commissioner of the police in charge of riot control, Bram De Bruyne, ignored a direct order from De Bever and also joined the LIM. Nagrem declined General Elo’s offer to attack the Belgian Parliament, but did ask him to keep his men at the ready should De Bever decide to forcefully regain control over Leuven and its surroundings. While the protests and campaigning were an important part of Nagrem’s plan to gain independence, an at least equally important role was being played by Benjamin Van Cutsem. His job was to convince the rest of the world, and especially the World Assembly, that Luthionia should be recognised as an independent nation. France was the first important nation to lend its support to the Luthionian cause and recognise Luthionia as an independent state. Soon other influential nations followed, and diplomatic pressure was starting to be exerted upon De Bever. At first he was oblivious to it, but several months after the World Assembly voted to recognise Luthionia as independent nation, he buckled under the mounting pressure. It was on 13 January, 2002, that De Bever made a brief statement on national television in which he said that ‘If those Lothiunians or whatever they call themselves want that meagre scrap of land for themselves, then they can have it. We’re better off without that sort of folk in our great country. And mark my words, they won’t last. Soon they’ll come crawling back like meek dogs.’ There was much rejoicing, and Nagrem declared January 13 to be a national holiday. First Term (2002-2007) Nagrem had been more or less in charge of the nation since its conception, but after its independence Nagrem decided it was time for real elections. They took place on June 6, and Nagrem won in a landslide, as there weren’t many opponents, let alone ones that had more than a small following. A government was formed, with Mark Devos as Prime Minister. Eve Winters was made Senior Advisor to the President, and she gave up her job in Galapagos. Other key players in the nation’s fight for independence were granted positions in the government and its institutions. Frederik Dekelver became Luthionia’s World Assembly Delegate, Adam Elo was made Chief of Staff of the Luthionian Armed Forces and Bram De Bruyne got the position of General Commissioner of the National Police. Obviously Leuven became the capital of Luthionia, and Nagrem ran the government from within the Philipssite, a complex that also contained the police station, the central post office and a sports centre. There was much to be organised, but Nagrem and his colleagues had had two years to prepare, so everything went quite smoothly. Nagrem also formed his own political party, the SP.A, which still had strong ties with its Belgian counterpart. But Luthionia’s population grew rapidly, and soon it was one of the world’s most densely populated nations. Nagrem had to find a solution to this, and preferably not one involving stricter immigration laws, as that had been one of the reasons he had disliked Bart De Bever’s policy. So instead he started to search for new lands. He almost bought Greenland from Denmark, but the deal was called off when a poll pointed out that nobody was prepared to move to such a cold and barren land. Next in line were several small islands in the Pacific, but that also didn’t turn out well. Nagrem was losing face in public opinion due to his inability to resolve the problem of overpopulation. But all that changed when he managed to strike a deal with the government of a region called Mazeria. Luthionia gained a large territory in the region, with a similar climate to that of Belgium, even slightly warmer. This happened in 2006, not long before the country’s second elections. Second Term (2007-2012) Once again Nagrem won the elections without a problem, as with his recent actions in resolving the nation’s overpopulation he had proved his competence yet again. In his second term Nagrem started moving the centre of Luthionia’s government from European Luthionia to Mazerian Luthionia. Large gas reserves had been discovered in Luthionia’s new territory, which gave the nation an enormous boost in funds. With the newly acquired wealth Nagrem built several large cities in Mazerian Luthionia. The biggest and most modern of these was Saculium, and Luthionia’s capital was moved to the new city. The new government headquarters had also been built there, designed by famous Luthionian architect Alissia Cockx. But by the time it was coming close to Luthionia’s third elections, the country had already existed for ten years, and enough time had passed for others to prepare themselves to compete with Nagrem for the position of President. Nagrem’s main rival was Sofiya Ven, Mayor of Saculium and head of the Luthionian Liberal Democrats. There were others, such as Jacob De Decker, head of the Luthionian Nationalistic and Patriotic Union, and Nathalie Van Bael, head of the party Christian Democratic and Luthionian, but it was soon clear they didn’t have a chance of winning the elections. Sofiya Ven, however, was popular with the people. Hers was Saculium’s biggest party, and she was also the city’s Mayor. She had a large following, especially within the capital. The two candidates campaigned for several months, and they both seemed to be just as popular. Nagrem and Ven had a lot of respect for each other, and there were no smear-campaigns or mud-slinging. When the elections arrived there was a lot of excitement, as it wasn’t at all clear who would win. Sacul Nagrem came out as the victor with only a fraction of more votes than Sofiya Ven. Third Term (2012-present) As Luthionian’s internal affairs had had time to settle, Nagrem decided that in his third term he would concentrate on foreign politics. He made himself heard within Mazeria, and got himself a name within the region. His first action to forge strong bonds with another nation in the region was when he started work on a space station in cooperation with the nation of RS Dynasty. Stella, as it was called, was completed in 2013. It was also in 2013 that he attended a talk in Boreo where an alliance was formed between nine nations, the Mazerian Assembly. Its function was to safeguard peace in the region. Nagrem had a seat on the organisation’s Security Council. But possibly the most important alliance was the creation of the Meridian Union. Nagrem invited his fellow Meridian leaders to a conference in Saculium, and after several days of debate the Treaty of Saculium was signed, creating the Meridian Union. But not all was about peace and prosperity during the President's third term. The Grand Conflict took place, in which tensions rose within the region, including between Luthionia and other nations. There was friction between Luthionia and Boreo, Azelia and Minkal consecutively. Boreo had landed troops within Luthionia without the President's permission, but Nagrem allowed them to leave in peace due to the fact that they were there to eliminate Nazi camps. The matter with Azelia was more serious, and almost escalated into a war. Prime Minister Mark Devos and several other Luthionians were held hostage and threatened with execution in Azelia, before they were rescued by a joint Luthionian, Borean and Minkalian task force. And finaly President Eldofski of Minkal invaded his neighbours, which didn't help relations with Luthionia. Category:People Category:Luthionia